kalm wrote:89Hen wrote:
What makes you think all the accountants and attorneys would all be on the side of the church? I guess the good news is unemployment would go down as the IRS would have to hire thousands to figure out these tax codes.
Did I say that?
Hey you know what? My business has a charitable foundation. It's humble compared to some churches but it's raised about $40,000 in 4 years for a very worthy charity. Even my feeble mind can keep it separate from the rest of our activities. But I've poured a ton of blood, sweat, and tears into it and my customers really people really BELIEVE in it. In fact they really BELIEVE in my business...almost to the point of worship...
You know where I'm going with this
Hey, it's perfectly fine for D1B and YT and other religion haters out there to give their opinions on how they feel about religion. The power of free speech. But it's very clear, from the get go in this country through today and for the near future, that plenty of people in this country do not want government to intercede on religion or religious belief, and if they do, then to do it as minimally as possible. And for better or for worse, people see taxes as a way that government would do that.
Again, taxing a church building like an actual brick and mortar church is vastly different than taxing an empty office building that the same church owns and then rents out, at a profit, to a completely non-related, non-religious application, like the church in Spain renting out to a restaurant. It's easy and certainly well past due for Spain to tax that property that is being used in that manner and if we aren't doing that here then we should. It's an entirely different animal to tax the church itself for it's church building or any other building directly related to the practice or education of that religion. And right now, that's not going to change. No matter how much you dislike or disapprove of that particular religion or religion in general.
